Melon Buffet

[crystalcazzie]

Guess where I was last week?

#TaskmasterLive

That's right!  We went back to the Taskmaster Live Experience to do Melon Buffet!  

Interestingly I think I preferred Melon Buffet to Absolute Casserole.  The pairs task in this one was my favourite of them all and not just because Paul and I absolutely smashed it!  Once again I didn't make the overall top five, but that was fine by me.  It was the prize for Best Loser that I was really after.  Unfortunately I didn't win that either and so left empty handed.  Well, almost.  I did buy a hoodie that I liked the look of.  

Because it was our second visit I didn't take as many photographs as last time.  But you know me, I still took quite a few:

Cooper House Snibormp

I'm pretty sure the giant wordsearch wasn't there last time.  I found a lot of names of contestants but nowhere near all of them.  I took a photo of this part though cos it contains the name I was particularly looking for.  You may know of whom I'm speaking...

Hello, Patatas!

My friend Patatas!  Of course I went to say hello to him again.

I also saw Linda the Cow:

Linda

And I couldn't go to a Taskmaster Experience without taking a picture with the man himself:

The Taskmaster. And me.

Sorry I'm blocking your face, Greg.

Don't Get Handsy

Is this better?  

I also took a couple of pictures of things in the museum that I don't think were there before:

An array of clothing choices

Costumes!

Five people, four heads

And contestants!

Another difference is that the dome with the pineapple inside was locked this time, so I'm really glad I got a picture in there last time we went.  

But there was another pineapple:

Pineapple!

Next to the caravan.  We sat in this area and had a couple of beers after playing.  It was very pleasant and we both felt a bit sad that this would be our last visit.  Unless they decide to come back with new games, that is!  

Socks Galore

Farewell, Taskmaster: The Live Experience!  You were a lot of fun!

Comments

[morti.livejournal.com]

We did Absolute Casserole and it was so good! Just an excellent day out. Very disappointed in myself now for not spotting Patatas, though. Also hi. Glad to see you're doing well. I popped in briefly to look for some old post or other on my old journal and noticed you were still here and I thought it'd be rude to pop my head in without saying hello.

[crystalcazzie.livejournal.com]

It really was! How did you do at Absolute Casserole? Were you one of the top five or did you play the losers game?

And hello! How have you been? Yes, I'm still here blogging away to myself long after everyone else has left! I'm a creature of habit, lol!

[morti.livejournal.com]

There are far worse habits one could have!

We somehow got enough people together to have the whole challenge to ourselves. I was first on points and lost in the game at the end and was very jealous of my friend who got the loser's prize. When we flew back to Germany (I live in Germany now) security checked his luggage and he'd piled up all his stuff on the security counter with this little rubber duck on top. Very sweet. Confusing for the security guy. I took a sneaky photo but he hadn't put his belt back on yet so he wouldn't like me sharing it.

It's been a decent enough... what, decade? Two? I dunno. I suppose over that length of time there'll be ups and downs. I got lucky in the end though. I got married to someone who grew up in Germany and moved to North Wales and when Brexit happened we thought Germany made more sense so we packed up our two cats and two suitcases and flew over in the middle of a pandemic and somehow it worked out! Got a job, got a house, cats are fine.

How about you? How's things with you?

[crystalcazzie.livejournal.com]

Oh, that sounds fun! Probably quite a different experience to playing with strangers where you don't know what kind of people they are. Fortunately I had a good group both times so still had a lot of fun! I'm still bitter about not winning the rubber duck though! 😂

And yeah, not quite two decades but pretty close! Congratulations on getting married! How's life in Germany? Moving to another country can't be easy, especially one with a completely different language!

I'm in the process of trying to move myself, although a much shorter distance and still in the same country! (Also I have to ask, are you being literal when you say two suitcases? Cos I'm drowning in stuff and can't imagine only having two suitcases to take!)

Glad to hear your cats took the move well. I have a dog now who is currently asleep on the sofa looking incredibly comfortable!

[morti.livejournal.com]

I think a bad group at a Taskmaster thing would be very rare. The show is too wholesome for that.

Germany's going well. I've picked up enough of the language to do my job and speak to my in-laws. Learning a language is surprisingly easy when you've got no other choice. 😉

It was literally two suitcases. We'd originally planned to have my parents drive us to Germany in a motorhome so we could take more things but there was that pandemic. France was closed. And I got my job pretty close to the Brexit wire so if we'd waited and moved a month later, I wouldn't have had the legal right to take that job. So we had to fly. The motorhome full of stuff came a while later once all the borders were open.

Fluffle the dog from me. Minerva's asleep on my lap right now. Pets are best. Good luck with the move. Hope it's somewhere nice. What are you doing these days?

[crystalcazzie.livejournal.com]

True. To both your first and second paragraphs!

Ah, ok. I'm still very impressed cos I don't think all my stuff would even fit in a motorhome! And I'm glad to hear you got there in time (I'm still so angry about Brexit!)

Pets are wonderful, that's true. Say hello to your cats for me (and give them a pet if they're in the right mood for that!) I'm planning to move to East Sussex, most likely the Hastings area although I am also looking around St Leonards, Bexhill, and Rye. I'm not up to much at the moment cos I'm mostly focused on moving, although it is taking a lot longer than I'd anticipated! I have also taken up speed puzzling, which is fun but I'm not very good at it!

[morti.livejournal.com]

There were multiple trips. 🙂

Brexit's so annoying that I'm working on getting German citizenship, but it's a long road. It's nice that I'll have it available at some point though.

Cats are asleep but I'll make a note for later.

Speed puzzling like puzzles? Cool. I don't think I'd have the eyesight or the dexterity for doing those at any speed. My free time is largely taken up by my YouTube channel and I don't have as much time to devote to it as I'd like. My wife Claudia's got her channel too. I do retro games, she does retro books. Classics, I think they're called. Keeps us busy anyway.

[crystalcazzie.livejournal.com]

I see! I don't feel quite so bad now! 😂

Yeah, speed puzzling is jigsaw puzzles. I found out about the World Jigsaw Puzzle Championships last September (although they'd first been held in 2019) and thought it looked like fun! I'm actually going to the UK Nationals next week, which is exciting and ever so slightly terrifying! My times are nowhere near good enough to win but I want to put in a good enough showing that I can be pleased with my performance.

Both of your YouTube channels look fun. I do love retro games and retro books classics. I'm trying to work out if I've seen any of your wife's videos before cos I do love Jane Austen and I have watched some videos about her and her books.

[morti.livejournal.com]

It's not unlikely you have. She's one of the regular presenters of Jane Austen July. I think you'd get on. We've done a switcheroo for 1st April so look out for her video on The Retro Sofa about Super Metroid and I've done a video about Wuthering Heights for Spinster's Library.

That tournament sounds fun! Good luck! I loved going to Magic (the card game) tournaments (when the game was good and I still played regularly) and had the best time. It'd be a bit hollow if I were to say you're going to smash it having never seen you (or anyone else) doing speed puzzling but you're going to have a great time anyway I'm sure. I'll look forward to the post about it! 😃

[crystalcazzie.livejournal.com]

Oh, that sounds fun! I'll have to check it out.

And I have returned from the tournament! I shall hopefully post about it soon. It was livestreamed on YouTube and is still up if you wanted to get an idea about the competition, but from what I've watched so far it's not a great production. And I haven't seen myself on screen at all, which is a bit disappointing. When I watched the Worlds livestreams they showed a lot more faces and people finishing.